Fight Me?
by FangirlMick
Summary: Based on a Tumblr Post. Muggle AU where Hermione was in a car accident and Ron is one of her nurses. Cover Art from Viria.
Author's Note:

This is my first HP fanfiction, so please be kind. Constructive criticism is always welcome. Based on a text post.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

* * *

Hermione was not happy. She was still not sure exactly what had happened. All she remembered was seeing a car driving the wrong way and pain. She groggily opened her eyes and stretched as much as the hospital bed and IVs would allow. Her entire body was pulsing with pain, especially her chest when she tried to breathe. Once she finally regained some of her breath, she looked around the disturbingly clean room, taking note of the TV across the room and the monitor next to her, as well as a table with her personal belongings. She also realized that she was propped up by what could only be described as a mountain of pillows. Just as she was reaching for her phone, she heard someone enter the room.

Hermione didn't know she expected to see when she looked up, but an incredibly attractive male nurse was not definitely not it. He would be almost comically tall, if he didn't fill out his dark blue scrubs so well. His hair was bright orange, and his pale skin was covered in freckles. In his large hands, he held a clipboard, most likely with the information about the people on his rotation. Hermione squeaked, knowing that she was most likely covered in bruises and her hair was undoubtedly a mess. He looked up at noise, and Hermione had to stop herself from gasping. He had the bluest eyes she had ever seen.

His smile was crooked and incredibly charming as he approached her. "Ms. Granger, it's good to see you're awake. I'm one of your nurses, Ron Weasley. What's the last thing you remember?" He asked, taking his stethoscope from around his neck. "Take a deep breathe, please," he pressed the stethoscope to her chest, and Hermione desperately hoped that she her heart wasn't beating too loudly. Calm down, she told herself. You've never gotten this worked up over some guy you've just met. Just answer his question.

"I remember seeing some idiot driving the wrong way down the street, and that's about it," she recalled, as he moved his stethoscope away from her chest, and went to take her blood pressure. "After that, it's all just a blur of pain."

"That's understandable. You were hit by the wrong way driver, who was drunk. You sustained more damage from the airbag than you did from the accident itself. However, the airbag did cause your ribs to puncture your left lung. You were lucky, it could have been a lot worse. You will be here for a while, while you recover," he explained as he continued taking her vitals and writing everything down.

Once he finished with her vitals and checking her bandages, Hermione asked, "Would you mind passing me my belongings? I should call my parents."

* * *

He smiled and nodded in understanding, and brought the table over. "That would be a good idea. We let them know when you got her, but from what I understand, they are out of the country."

"Yes, they're in the US, for a convention. They'll be worried. How long have I been here?" She asked as she grabbed her phone from her bag.

"I didn't tell you?" Ron asked, his ears turning red when he realized his slip. She shook her head, and pressed her lips together in amusement. "Ah, uh, about a day and a half. We had to put you under for surgery. Sorry, I thought I told you," he murmured, looking down and lifting his hand to scratch his neck.

Hermione smiled. He was quite cute when he was embarrassed. "It's quite alright," she said as she looked at her phone. Thankfully, she'd finished her case before this. She didn't even want to think about the headache that she would have if she had fallen behind then. As she went to call her mum, she saw Ron go to leave the room. "Thank you," she called out, hoping that this wouldn't be the last she saw of him, and that next time she looked a little better.

"Don't worry about it," he said, still a faint trace of red in his ears. "It is my job."

* * *

The next time she saw Ron, one of her coworkers had dropped off some work for her, so she didn't fall behind, and her parents had brought necessities and a few other things from her apartment. She was propped by a large pile of pillows, as well as several on her lap, propping up her work. He raised a pale eyebrow at her setup, but didn't say anything. He went about taking her vitals, as she continued reading through the information for the case. However, his silence didn't do much. Just his presence was distracting to her, and she was very glad she had brushed her hair earlier. "Do you ever stop reading?" He asked, looking down at her. "That doesn't even look particularly interesting, either."

"It's for work, and it's very important," Hermione scoffed, finally looking up. As she did so, he snatched the file of her lap and put it on the table next to her. "Give that back!" Hermione tried to demand forcefully. Unfortunately, she voice came out wheezy and tight.

"That's all nice and good, but you can't go back to your important work if you don't let yourself recover," he said as he adjusted her position and pillows.

"Oh, fight me," she mumbled under her breath, knowing he was right, but not ready to admit to that.

He smiled crookedly at her, the same smile he'd given her when she'd first woken up. "Maybe later," he said jokingly. "Right now, you need to sleep. And in case you get any ideas," He moved the table with her work and other belongings out of her reach. She glared at him, which normally scared most people into submission. He just smiled innocently. "The next rotation is in three hours. You can get back to work then. Until then," he said, moving closer to Hermione, "You need to sleep, Ms. Granger."

"Hermione," she corrected him, not really thinking. Before she could stop herself, she went on, "If I'm going to be seeing you on a regular basis while I'm recovery, please, call me Hermione." She shifted her eyes away from him and fidgeted with the pillow in her lap.

She looked up when she felt a large hand on her shoulder. "Than sleep, Hermione," he ordered kindly, a warm look in his blue eyes.

She sighed and got herself comfortable, before fixing Ron with a mock glare. "I'll sleep, but don't expect me to do it with you in the room," she playfully admonished. He laughed, and she was absorbed in the rich sound of it, and the way his eyes crinkled in the corners, and how his blue eyes lit up and- Get a hold on yourself, she scolded herself internally. He's just laughing and you likely won't see him once you leave.

As he walked towards the door, and turned down the lights, she heard him whisper, "Sleep well, Hermione."

* * *

Ron came back the next day, flashing her that charming smile again. "Good to see you're not working," he remarked half-playfully, half-serious.

"The only reason I'm not working is because I can't leave, so I can't argue the case," she said a little sharply. He raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. She sighed defeatedly, "Sorry. It's just, I hate not being able to truly do my job. I can do research and case work from here, but that doesn't win cases. I want to do more."

"I get that. I hate it when I have to take days off. I hate the irregular hours of this job, but I love it all the same," He said as he finished taking her temperature. Hermione found that incredibly admirable and a little relieving. She often felt the same way about her own work. She didn't particularly like the fact that she never really got out much, but she knew that her job was an important one. "So, you're a solicitor, then?" He asked, looking at the monitor instead of her face. Hermione bit her lip and smiled. She wasn't the only one with an interest.

"Yes. I work in for the legal section of the International Foundation for Animal Welfare," Hermione explained with pride. "It's my job to make sure big corporations don't infringe on animal rights and risk harm to endangered and threatened species," She explained.

"I heard something about them recently. Didn't you lot win a case against a several big oil companies?" He asked as he took her blood pressure.

Hermione's chest puffed up with the mention of the case. "Yes, we did. I was actually the lead solicitor on the case. We were suing several oil companies who were operating in the arctic. They were displacing hundreds of animals, and destroying one of the most endangered habitats on Earth." She was quite proud of her work on that case. It had undoubtedly advanced her career, but more importantly to her, it had helped hundreds of animals.

Ron looked at her with mild surprise. "You were really the lead solicitor on that case?" his voice disbelieving.

"Well, I don't make a habit of lying about my career," Hermione snapped, glaring at him.

He quickly backtracked, his ears and face a very bright red. "No, no. I didn't mean it like that! I-"

"Well that what did you mean?" She asked scathingly.

"I meant that I was surprised someone so young was the lead on a case that big. One of my brothers works in a wildlife preserve in Romania. He said with cases that big, they always ask their most experienced people. Not ones that look like they only recently left law school," he said quickly, his flush still spreading across his face.

"Oh," was all Hermione could say.

"Yeah, I wasn't doubting your skills or expertise as a solicitor, or anything like that. I was just surprised, I guess," he shrugged as he scratched the back of his neck, his eyes on the floor.

Hermione reached out and laid a hand on his arm without think. She seemed to be doing that a lot around him. Before she over analyzed what was happening, making the situation far more awkward than it needed to be, she said, "It's okay. I'm just used to people questioning my career and how I got to where I am now. I've worked hard to get where I am, and I hate it when people assume that that isn't the truth. I just went into autopilot." She was now the one blushing, and not making eye contact. In an effort to change the subject and get rid of the tension in the room, Hermione continued, "Can I ask you something?"

"Uh, sure," Ron responded uncertainly, clearly thrown off by the change in her attitude.

Hermione lifted her hand off of his arm, and brushed her hair behind her ear. "I've been here for almost 4 days now, and I haven't seen any other male nurses," She trailed off as she glanced at his face before continuing. "I know that there is some of stigma around male nurses, but you seem really into your job, and I was just wondering how you, I don't know, decided that this is what you want to do?" She looked at him again, and backtracked as soon as she saw the surprised look on his face. "Never mind. I never should have asked. I've clearly made you uncomfortable. Just forget I said anything," she said hastily. Why couldn't she leave well-enough alone? Why was she interested anyway? It wasn't like he was the only attractive man she'd ever meet.

"No no no no, it's- it's okay. You didn't make me uncomfortable. I just wasn't expecting that. You're the first patient I've had that's asked," he said hurriedly. "Uh, when I was 15, my dad got attacked. My family has always been pretty outspokenly liberal, and a couple of guys from my dad's work didn't like that. It happened a couple of days before Christmas, so all of my siblings were in town and everyone was pretty worried. For a while we didn't know if he would make it," He trailed off, tilting his head down and rubbing the back of his neck, clearly thinking about what had happened. He shook his head and went back to the story. "Anyway, we were at the hospital almost everyday. And there was this one male nurse who would come and check on him everyday. He always made sure Dad was okay, and that we were okay. He would make jokes and tell stories and compliment my mom and sister. He just made sure that everyone was comfortable. And afterwards, I realized that I wanted to do that to. He made sure that my family knew everything that he knew and made sure that everyone was as comfortable as possible. I suppose I've always been a bit of a care-taker for my friends, so this just made sense," he explained, his ears a little red at the tips.

Hermione smiled, "That's incredibly sweet Ron. Thank you for telling me, you didn't have to."

He made a dismissive noise and waved his hand. "It's really not a big deal. I've gotten a lot of flack from my brothers about it, but they all think this is what's right for me. They just like to take the mickey out of me." He smiled a little deviously down at Hermione, causing her stomach to erupt in butterflies. "So, tell me Hermione, what made you want to become an animal right's solicitor?" He asked, smiling crookedly with one eyebrow cocked.

Hermione blushed and looked away, biting her lip. "I've always loved animals. When I was little, I had a hard time making friends, so I was always close with animals. When I was thirteen, I adopted a cat from a shelter, who'd been abused and severely malnourished. Crookshanks was my best friend, I loved him so much. After I adopted him, I started volunteering at the local shelter, and realized how poorly so many animals were treated. I've always been one who was prone to academic argument, so law seemed like the right way to help," she shrugged, blushing at the admiring look in his eyes.

"That's pretty amazing," he said honestly, before smirking, "And now look at you, a big, hot shot solicitor." There was a teasing look in his eye that was so endearing, she couldn't even bring herself to be truly upset about his jest. That didn't mean she couldn't tease back.

"Oh, fight m-" before Hermione could finish her sentence, she started coughing so hard that she was seeing double and she thought her lung was going to come out of her chest.

Ron immediately rushed to her side, and helped her, rubbing her back and making sure she was sitting up straight. "I doubt I would win," he teased, but there was a layer of honesty underneath is mildly sarcastic tone.

As he left, Hermione couldn't help but think about the conversation that had just transpired. She couldn't deny that she felt comfortable talking to Ron, and that she found him funny and kind and not to mention incredibly attractive. Maybe not in the most typical of ways, but the way his smile lit up his face and he always seemed to care about the littlest of things made him seem like someone she could grow to love. She even thought his semi-permanent state of embarrassment was endearing. She sighed and flopped back against her pillows. This is no good, she thought. Why couldn't I have met him someplace where I would see him again?

* * *

On her fifth and final day at the hospital, Hermione awoke to the smell of tea. As she reached for the tea she noticed a note scrawled on a napkin next to the to go cup. She took the cup first, sighing contentedly at the taste of Earl Grey with just the right amount of lemon and honey. She picked up the note as she took a second sip. It simply read "Fight me?" with what she assumed to be Ron's number written beneath. She nearly choked on her tea, she was laughing so hard. She hastily picked up her phone, and entered the number. "Thank you for the tea :)" was all she sent, but she knew that would be enough.

Almost immediately she got a response from Ron. "Did I get the right type? I noticed a cup with Early Grey and honey and lemon packets next to it the other day, so I assumed." Hermione smiled almost indecently. He's observant, too. She responded quickly, "It's perfect" before putting her phone down and carefully get dressed in the clothes her parents brought for her the previous day. As she was buttoning her jeans, she heard her phone go off. She picked up her phone, reading the text. "I know you're going home today, but I really don't want this to be the last time I see you. Would you like to get drinks sometime?" That one was quickly followed by: "You don't have to say yes I was just wondering." Hermione laughed, imagining the face he made while typing that. "I'd love to get drinks with you" she responded before filling out the paperwork that he had left that she need to give to the people at the desk. Even though she had only met him a few days ago, she had a feeling that this could work out exceedingly well. She'd never been so glad she challenged someone to a fight.


End file.
